How tightly does your business monitor every cost, every expenditure, every charge, every business expense? With the right tools in place, it’s easy to keep a close eye on everything and to spot problems quickly – you can also get a much clearer view on the bigger picture too. That’s the ideal – but for many businesses, it’s not so clear cut. In this article we explore the areas where money is potentially being lost.
- Topic:
- Finance
Since March 2021, the UK’s construction industry have had to handle and pay VAT in a different way following the introduction of the new VAT reverse charge system. Find out more about these changes and how this might impact your business.
- Topic:
- Construction
Sage has announced that from 30th September 2021, Sage Manufacturing will no longer be offered, supported or further developed and is currently undergoing an end of life process.
Access offers a more comprehensive alternative – Access MRP has all the Sage Manufacturing features that you are familiar with, but with considerably more functionality. Full quality control and traceability features, capacity planning tools, In-depth app-based dashboards, giving you visibility and an overview of your entire operation and shop floor data capture.
Take a look at our feature comparison factsheet, so you can compare between Sage Manufacturing and Access MRP.
If you are concerned as to the impact of this on your business, we have summarised below some of the FAQs we have seen in recent Google searches.
- Topic:
- Manufacturing
Personal Involvement
What keeps operations managers awake at night?
The short answer is: uncertainty – but there is more than one type of uncertainty, as 2020 has demonstrated. There are those things over which you have no control, such as Covid-19 and Brexit. Their ultimate resolution is out of our hands.
On the other hand, there are uncertainties that we can influence. Lack of visibility, human error (and fear of it), delivery failures and lack of clarity over what is happening on the shop floor are born from lack of controls.
How do we improve visibility where it is needed? Over the supply chain, personnel performance, machine performance, warehouse stock, finished goods inventory and work in progress (WIP)?
“Automation” is the easy and obvious answer but it’s not that simple. What sort of automation? Where and when? Automating the wrong thing and at the wrong time can be disastrously counterproductive. We know of a commercial vehicle maker whose ERP system became so bloated that there were more people employed running it than were on the shop floor. We heard recently of a transport company whose systems are so chaotic that drivers are being sent to the wrong place, or arrive to find themselves at the end of a long queue, waiting for hours to offload or collect.
- Topic:
- Manufacturing
Disruptions in global supply chains manifest themselves in many ways, from natural disasters to medical crises. Regardless of the situation, UK manufacturers must be able manage any tremors felt in their supply chain - and software tools are the missing link for creating a robust supply chain.
- Topic:
- Supply Chain
In the UK, 15% of adults smoke cigarettes and 6% use e-cigarettes. One in four employees in manufacturing is a smoker. Type ‘smokers more breaks’ into Google and you would be barraged with angry employees complaining about their smoking colleagues.
- Topic:
- Supply Chain
In short, both MRP and ERP systems are pieces of software that help you to run your business better based on historical information, forecasting algorithms and your chosen business priorities. The key difference is the scope; MRP has a much narrower, manufacturing-centric focus than ERP, which provides business-wide benefits as well as supply chain management. To give you a better understanding of the components of each, and to help you to decide which one might be right for your company, we’ve set out some of the detail below.
Find out more about MRP and ERP, through a series of articles looking at the differences between these tools and which system is right for you and your business.
- Topic:
- Supply Chain
If your business operates in manufacturing or production, you are likely to have heard of ERP or MRP. Similar in both name and concept, the range of options available can make it difficult to work through the differences and understand which one might work best for you.
In short, both MRP and ERP systems are pieces of software that help you to run your business better based on historical information, forecasting algorithms and your chosen business priorities. The key difference is the scope; MRP has a much narrower, manufacturing-centric focus than ERP, which provides business-wide benefits as well as supply chain management. To give you a better understanding of the components of each, and to help you to decide which one might be right for your company, we’ve set out some of the detail below.
- Topic:
- Supply Chain
All you need to know about ERP and MRP before you make a critical business decision. Find out what is ERP and MRP and what they do, as well as what the key differences are between the two and which is right for your business.
When looking to invest in software it is important to ensure that the software can do what you need it to do today whilst taking into consideration that it will need to do what you require tomorrow. Future proof your business with the right tool for the job.
- Topic:
- Supply Chain
An ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system is a piece of software that unifies all the information you require to run your business and provides you and your teams with the processing tools to operate at an optimum level in all areas. All departments are integrated into the one system, and therefore a customer’s journey through your company is completely transparent, providing you with real-time costs and status updates to run your business effectively, as well as providing customers with automated, real-time updates.
- Topic:
- Supply Chain
